Another De Francis Takes Reins

WASHINGTON —  The walls of Joe De Francis’s office at Pimlico are covered with plaques and scrolls. They are awards for Frank De Francis, special citations for Frank De Francis, proclamations that Frank De Francis is the man of the year.

The new president of Maryland’s race tracks will be surrounded for a long time by tangible and intangible reminders that he is succeeding the most innovative, most acclaimed racing executive in the country. This would be a daunting task for anyone, let alone a son with no previous experience in the racing industry.

Fans, employees and horsemen have wondered what will happen to Maryland racing in the wake of Frank De Francis’s death last month. To many outsiders, at least, his son’s succession is a cause for surprise and speculation.

Pimlico and Laurel already had an experienced management team; Bob and Tom Manfuso, who had teamed with Frank DeFrancis to buy the two tracks, had spent their lives in the sport. Now a 34-year-old is entering the picture and announcing he is the boss. Wouldn’t this be a source of jealousy or friction or disruption?

Surprisingly it has not been, and the reason in large part is Joe De Francis himself. He has respect for and confidence in the management team his father had assembled, and the tracks probably are going to keep functioning basically as they have been. But De Francis is also smart, articulate, poised, self-assured -- he is clearly his father’s son -- and he inspires confidence in his ability to take over this job.

Even though he never had been involved officially with racing until last week, De Francis has maintained a lifelong love of the sport. Some of his earliest childhood memories were trips to Charles Town with his father.

When his father and the Manfusos purchased Laurel five years ago, the younger De Francis took a keen interest: “I paid tremendous attention to what he was doing. We were as close as two men could be. He’d bounced ideas off me, and I could be one of his strongest critics. The thought of my being involved in the operation was something he often discussed, but with the team he had assembled there would have been little substantial work to do. So I was working hard to develop a career as an attorney.”

The father wanted his son to carry on his work in Maryland racing, and he made that desire known to his partners too. “The relationship between my dad and the Manfusos was as good as a relationship could be,” De Francis said. “My dad’s strong desire was that I do everything I could to make Maryland racing the best it could be. I think the Manfusos know that. I think they’re happy to have me come in. But to say I’d be their boss would be a misnomer. There was a team concept in the management even with Frank. Each person had his own areas of responsibility without having to report to Frank.”

A friend says one difference between father and son is that Frank would seize an idea immediately and excitedly, and say, “Let’s go with it!” His son is more apt to be deliberative, a consensus builder. Joe De Francis says a difference is that, “I’ll be a lot less colorful.”

But no one expects Maryland’s tracks will now be operated by a faceless bureaucracy. As soon as DeFrancis gets comfortable with his new responsibilities he is going to be a visible force in the racing industry. He has to be.

The No. 1 objective of the Maryland tracks is the creation of an effective off-track betting system. This requires the cooperation of the state legislature, and politicking is something the owner of the track can do much more effectively if he is Joe De Francis rather than Joe Smith. Plenty of the key figures in Annapolis “are people I consider myself fortunate to count among my friends,” De Francis said.

Will he be the kind of effective political mover and shaker that his father was? “Time will tell,” De Francis said. “But I do intend to make my voice heard.”

De Francis likely will make his voice heard in many areas. He may be a consensus builder and a believer in team management, but it is hard to imagine any offspring of Frank De Francis as a shrinking violet. “Dad always felt the buck had to stop with someone,” he said. “That’s a function I will fulfill.”